Yesterday, the president rejected the mercy petitions of four members of sandalwood smuggler Veerappan's gang. They were given the death sentence by the Supreme Court for a landmine blast in Karnataka in 1993 in which 22 policemen were killed.

Earlier this month, Kashmiri Afzal Guru was hanged and buried at Delhi's Tihar Jail after the president rejected a petition filed by his wife requesting that his sentence be commuted to life in prison.

Various human rights groups have criticised India for the executions. After Afzal Guru was hanged on February 9 Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said it "opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment."